WBB: Little East

[7express]

So Mya Villard, Emma Belcourt and Cromwell finished the season unbeaten, and both players won their second state title with a 43-20 win over Notre Dame-Fairfield today.  Villard & Belcourt finished their high school careers at Cromwell 104-7.  Yes, they won 104 of 111 games they've played in their 4 seasons.  As I said the other day both Eastern & Western are getting proven winners in these 2.  Villard will continue the winning tradition at Eastern, while Belcourt will look to get the Colonials back to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2011.

[amh63]

Well Done 7!  Plus K

[7express]

Here's my preseason predictions, so when March (err....February) roll around I can bump this, and remind myself how much of an idiot I really am.  As usual, projected conference record in parenthesis.

1) Keene (11-3).  Kelsey Cognetta used up all her eligibility, but Steph D'Annalfo, who will average close to 11 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists and Sandi Purcell will probably get the reigns at the point.  Once again, they used Connecticut, getting guard/forward Nicole Johnson out of Windsor Locks (isn't that where they found Courtney Cirillo??) Rachel Bonnanzizo from a good Pomperaug team, and Jasmin Mitchell from Meriden.  Returning players include forwards Amanda Petrow and Sarah Kober.  With Eastern losing Jill Ritorsky, and the Owls finishing 10-4 in conference last year, I think the Owls are the favorite.
2) Eastern (10-4).  Ritorsky is a big loss, but they return Jordyn Nappi, who has done nothing since her first 2 months of her freshmen season, Lexis Foster, and Julie DePoi.  As mentioned back in March they get forward Mya Villard who went 104-7 in her Cromwell high school career, and also Lizzie Cretella who played at St. Paul Catholic whose coach is Joe Mone, the father of ex-Colonial Chelsea.
3) Western (9-5).  Haven't been good the last couple of years, but coach Rybczyk brought in some winners in high school: Emma Belcourt a left shooting guard from that Cromwell team that won 2 state titles.  Gabby Hurlbert, a guard/forward came out of Thomaston, and she also won 2 state titles while in high school.  Emily Dobson is the leading returning scorer, and she is surrounded by Sam Smith & Alecia Dulaire who I believe has a brother, Stan, that played at division 1 Sacred Heart.  I know that name definitely sounded familiar!  Whether they can translate that talent, some of it raw, into wins remains to be seen, but it looks like this year the 2 Eastern/Western games have some meaning for the first time since about 2011-12.
4) Dartmouth (8-6).  Megan Ronaghan is out for at least the first semester as she is not listed on the Corsairs roster......though is listed as a captain, so that's odd .  If she was injured, you'd have to think she'd be on the roster from the start, if she got suspended, why would you want her to be a captain??  If something doesn't make sense, it's usually not true, and that seems like one of these times.  They also graduated Beth Castantini, so between Ronaghan and Castantini, they lost over 32 points per game for at least the first semester.  Add in Colleen Kane (at 6.6 ppg) who graduated, that's almost 40 points per game the Corsairs have to replace.  And even if Ronaghan does come back for the 2nd semester, there are still 2 LEC games the first half of the year, and the first 2 LEC games count the same as the last 2.  Really don't know where to place them.  With Ronaghan they are probably a 1st, 2nd, 3rd place team, but there's a drop off from there, so even if she is out for the whole year I don't think they finish below 6th.
5) Boston (7-7).  Olivia Murphy isn't there anymore, but they have great role players in Taje Burston, Grace Geary, Chantal Jordan, and Katrina Edwards.  Also, this team has played in 2 straight LEC championship games, so even though they may look weak on paper, and they are going to struggle on the boards, don't count them out.  They used to be automatic wins for USM, Western & Eastern, and that is totally not the case anymore.
6) USM (6-8).  They used to be automatic in Maine, now it seems like they are automatic on the road instead.  They graduated their top 3 scorers and rebounders from a 14-12 team.  This years team has 0 seniors and 9 underclassmen, so looks like in professional sports what we call a "rebuilding" year in Maine.
7) RIC (4-10).  Aside from Alex Moore, they don't really have a lot to work with in Providence.
8) Plymouth (2-12).  Speaking of rebuilds from previous, year 6 of the 3 year rebuild in Plymouth.  Luckily for the Panthers they've got some decent scorers in Ace Lawrence, & Rosalie Edmonds and USM & RIC look pathetic this year, but this is a team that hasn't won more than 2 LEC games since 2009, and has lost 38 straight LEC games, so I have to pretty much put them last by default.  In this space I've given credit to the Panthers before and as they say fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me, fool me 3 times??  Not a chance.

LEC player of the year:
Steph D'Annalfo- Keene

LEC first team:
Emily Dobson- Western
Grace Geary- Boston
Alex Moore- RIC
Julie DePoi-Western
Ace Lawrence- Plymouth
D'Annalfo

LEC final:
Dartmouth over Western.  I'm taking a huge gamble and pegging Ronaghan to only be out the first semester (or that the Corsairs website made a mistake).  Even if they struggle in the regular season, I'll always take the team with the better talent & better players overall, and if by some miracle these teams all end up in these respective spots, and ALL teams are healthy in late February Keene & Dartmouth look to have the best teams this season, so that semifinal should be the defacto LEC championship.  Since this conference doesn't look very good, especially at the bottom, I don't see a second team cracking the NCAA's.  Too bad 2016 Keene couldn't play this year.....or hell get Cognetta an extra year.

Here's the official predictions:
http://littleeast.com/sports/wbkb/2016-17/releases/20161109_WBBpoll

[AllStar]

A word of caution...Stephanie D'Annolfo has some kind of injury.  I don't know the severity or how much time she will miss, but others will have to step up if she can't play.

[7express]

Let's get the ball rolling on the season.  6 of the 8 teams in action Tuesday only teams not in action are Eastern (they open Wednesday) and RIC who doesn't have their opener until Friday.

UNE @ USM.
This recent Southern Maine rivalry has been dominated by the N'orEasters with UNE winning 3 straight and 6 of the last 7 overall.  The only game USM won in this stretch was the '13 outfit with Rebecca Knight, Hayley Jordan, Jordan Grant, Nicole Garland and Erin McNamera that started the season 18-0 got as high as #10 or #11 and finished 27-2.  This years team will be lucky to have less than 2 losses by Thanksgiving.  UNE is favored by 5.5 and I think they'll clear 6 points easily.  UNE 67-53.

Suffolk @ Boston.
Another rivalry that's been dominated by 1 team recently.  The Beacons have won 3 straight in this city rivalry, and are favored in this by 13, and once again I think the Beacons will clear 13 points pretty easily.  Boston 82-58.

Westfield @ Keene.
The Owls won last year's meeting by 29 points which put them on the map, and at home are an 8 point favorite as the odds have dropped overnight with some injury concerns for the Owls.  Injuries or not, this is my preseason pick for the conference who will start off 1-0 with a 75-70 win.

Rivier vs. Plymouth (@ NHTI).
Another rivalry, and another rivalry that's been dominated by 1 team.  Since the series resumed at NHTI prior to the 2012-13 season, the Raiders have won 3 of the 4 matchups including last year's 63-59 games.  Panthers are actually a 4.5 point favorite which seems awfully generous considering I don't even think the Panthers win as I'll take the Raiders in a close 64-63 win.

Sage @ Western.
This is the 3rd straight year playing each other, and despite the Colonials picking up 2 wins, both games have been relatively close with them pulling out a 51-47 win in Danbury in 2014 and then winning on the road 79-72 last year.  I'll have to questions the oddsmakers again as they have made the Colonials a 10 point favorite despite the fact they've only won the first 2 by a combined 11 points and I'd like to know what they know about Sage that I don't know.  I'll take the Colonials in once again a close game with a 75-68 final.

Dartmouth @ WPI.
The Corsairs won by 2 at home last year and last year they got a combined 34 points from Beth Constantini (graduated) and Megan Ronaghan (not playing) and scored only 67 total, so good luck getting those 34 points back from last year.  Engineers are a 1.5 point favorite and I say they win easily with the production lost from the Corsairs; 79-64 WPI.

[7express]

Keene wins 78-74, but didnt like what I saw.  Westfield shot like 3-30 from 3, their guards can't shoot free throws, and their freshman back up PG looked completely flustered against the press.  Westfield will be a good team, and they made sure they stayed fresh throughout as they played like a poor man's Grinnell with hockey line suns every minute or so, and really looked to push tempo and like Grinnell shoot the 3 ball.  Unfortunately, 74 points ain't gonna win in that offense.  Keene should've definitely won by more than 4.
Boston loses at home to Suffolk REALLY not a good look there.

[AllStar]

Keene wins 78-74, but didnt like what I saw.  Westfield shot like 3-30 from 3, their guards can't shoot free throws, and their freshman back up PG looked completely flustered against the press.  Westfield will be a good team, and they made sure they stayed fresh throughout as they played like a poor man's Grinnell with hockey line suns every minute or so, and really looked to push tempo and like Grinnell shoot the 3 ball.  Unfortunately, 74 points ain't gonna win in that offense.  Keene should've definitely won by more than 4.
Boston loses at home to Suffolk REALLY not a good look there.

Really shaky performance from Keene.  Nevermind the turnovers (which were really bad), the free throw shooting was abysmal.  That game was a close but not particularly well-played contest and Keene has plenty to work on in the coming weeks, that's for sure.  You take the win, but they better see the need for improvement.  Emily McPadden led the Owls in scoring with 24 points (9-of-20 shooting, 6-for-16 from three).  Sandi Purcell had 14 points, but on an unsightly 4-of-16 (2-of-8 from three) shooting performance.  Westfield State may run some weak teams off the court, but that line change up-and-down style may hurt them against good competition.  If I recall, last year was the first time they utilized this style of play.

Suffolk beat UMB, 73-70.  Bad loss for the Beacons.  Grace Geary scored 21 points, but nobody else scored in double-figures for UMass-Boston.  The Beacons led by six with six minutes left, but couldn't hang on.  Kelsey Schiebel scored 15 and Alexandra Nagri added 14 for Suffolk, who was a brutal 14-of-28 from the free throw line.

University of New England clamped down on Southern Maine, winning 62-46.  The Huskies scored just 11 points in the first half and trailed 25-11 at the break.  They cut the deficit to 9 after three, but UNE pulled away in the 4th.  Alicia Brown scored 14 for the Nor'easters and Ashley Coneys added 13.  UNE won comfortably despite shooting 3-for-18 from behind the arc and 7-of-14 from the free throw line.  Emily Nicholson led the Huskies with 17 points in an impressive performance, but Kayla Stacy needed 14 shots to get 10 points and was the only other person in double-figures.

RIC beat Salem State 60-53 in overtime in an ugly contest.  Alex Moore led the Anchorwomen with 17 points, but was just 4-of-25 shooting.  Victoria Demers scored 12 for RIC.  Amazingly, the Anchorwomen won despite 23% (17-75) shooting.  Salem State wasn't much better at 27% (20-73).  The Vikings blew a 10 point lead in the final 5:53 of the 4th.

Plymouth State beat Rivier 71-61.  DeAsia Lawrence scored 21 points (8-13, 3-6 from three) for the Panthers, who shot 50% and led by as many as 21.  Sure, it was against Rivier, but when was the last time that happened?

Western Connecticut got a three from Jancy Sherwood with six seconds left to beat Sage 69-67.  The Colonials led by four in the final minute, but the Gators rallied.  Western shot just 9-of-20 from the free throw line.  Emily Dobson scored 16 points off the bench.  Kaitlyn Labonte added 12 points.  Kaitlyn Bowman scored 23 points for Sage.

UMass-Dartmouth opened their season with a 56-47 road win at WPI.  Chelsea Houlihan scored 13 and Leah Douty scored 11.  Nakira Examond led UMD with 13 rebounds.  The Corsairs didn't exactly torch the nets, but the Engineers were worse, shooting just 29% (19-62).  Ama Biney led WPI with 16 points, but the next best scorers only had 8 points.

There is a game on the schedule tomorrow, as Eastern Connecticut will likely get a win against Fisher in their season opener.

[7express]

No odds on ECSU/Fisher since Fisher is non d-3 so that is off the board.  However, I will take Eastern to roll to a 93-36 win, shouldn't have much difficulty with this NAIA foe.

[7express]

4-3 through Tuesday & Wednesday (somehow missed the RIC/Salem game) while the conference is a pretty good 6-2.....though the competition has been mostly a flaming pile of $#!t!  And it's only marginally better on Friday:

Salve (+15.5) @ Dartmouth.  I believe WPI was actually pegged preseason #1 in the NEWMAC, so if they can win that game on the road I don't think they'll have a problem.  Of course this is Dartmouth we are talking about and seems like there are always problems with them when it looks too good to be true....Dartmouth 78-60.
New England College (+12) vs. Eastern (@ Gordon).  Luckily they are playing NEC and not Houghton like I thought they were, so the SOS jumps up slightly but not too much.  Eastern 85-65
RIC (+2) vs. Westfield (@ Brandeis).  Westfield playing another conference team that can't score.  Let's see if the hockey lineup & up-tempo style win this one....I think it does.  Westfield 92-76.  The Owls scored over 90 15 times last year, the first year playing the up-tempo style and they had only reached 90 once the previous 4 seasons.  If RIC can't put up at least 75 on them, they are in big trouble this year.
Tufts (-22) vs. Keene (@ Skidmore).  The Jumbos are preseason #1 for a reason......they are a hell of a team.  Tufts/Amherst in February is my early game of the year nominee.  And yah sorry AllStar, Keene has absolutely no chance in this one, they'll be lucky if they can break 45 points on this defense.  When they last played in 2014 Tufts won 79-48....and the team this year might even be better than that 14/15 team that lost in the semifinals and lost only 2 games all season was.  Tufts 77-41
Western (+9.5) @ Stockton.  Western won the tournament @ Stockton 3 years ago, including beating Stockton at the buzzer in the championship game, but not seeing a repeat here.  Stockton has won 22 games each of the past 2 years, and with Rowan making the NCAA's last year and Montclair always a regional semifinal & final threat, the NJAC is a lot better than the LEC is, so Stockton is tested.  I'll lay the points, but pick the Ospreys by a 68-61 final.

[7express]

Friday: Dartmouth & Eastern won.  RIC got clobbered by the Westfield tempo, Keene couldn't crack even 40 points against Tufts and lost big, while Western got crushed by Stockton.  Conference falls to 8-5 while I nailed all 5 games correctly and go to 9-3.  Onto Saturday:

Gettysburg (-3) vs. Western (@ Stockton).  Gettysburg lost by 16 to a team (FDU-Florham) that's gone 86-6 the last 3 years including a national title in 2015.  Stockton is good, but losing by 16 to a 29-2 team is a lot better than losing by 32 to a 22-7 team.  Gettysburg 67-61
RIC (pick em) vs. Wentworth (@ Brandeis).  Both teams were bad last year, I'll go with the LEC team and RIC 63-58.
Endicott (+8) vs. Keene (@ Skidmore).  Really odd tournaments for Keene to play in.  In this tournament they already had a scheduled matchup with Endicott which is taking place on Tuesday.  And for those wondering why they didn't set the matchups in advance with Keene playing Skidmore regardless of result, well, that's because they'll be playing each other in the Wesleyan tournament in December.  And for those STILL wondering why the Wesleyan matchups aren't preset.....well.....you guessed it!  Worcester state is also in that tournament, and they also have a regularly scheduled game against Keene.  That matchup if it takes place will be 3 days before the regularly scheduled game.  With New England such a furtile ground for d-3 basketball, why is Keene going to 2 tournaments where they have a regularly scheduled game against at least 1 of the teams in the field??  Makes no sense!  USM is heading to a tournament in Plattsburgh, why couldn't USM head to Skidmore (I don't think USM plays any of those 3 teams) and than Keene heads up to Plattsburgh where they don't have a scheduled meeting with those 3 teams this year??  I'll take Keene 67-57
Eastern (-28) @ Gordon.  Oh please!  Gordon hasn't finished better than 8-16 in 10 years, and if you want a common opponent I'll give you this: Both played Fisher (The NAIA/USCAA foe) at home: Eastern won 84-40, Gordon lost 78-74.  I think the 28 point spread is about 30 points too low.  Eastern 95-42.
Coast Guard (+12.5) @ Dartmouth.  Coast Guard lost by 10 @ Dartmouth last year, and this year edge Salve by 4 (Dartmouth beat them by 9) and Rivier a team they beat by the same margin that Plymouth did.  Dartmouth 74-62
USM (-7.5) vs. Sage (@ Plattsburgh).  Other game in this tournament is the host Cardinals squaring off against Southern Vermont.  Sage 67-62
St. Catherine (-9.5) vs. Boston (@ NYU).  I'd like to know why a team, from Minnesota is coming out to New York right at the end of the semester (or does St. Catherine have trimesters??)  St. Catherine 72-65

[AllStar]

Yikes.  This conference is off to an ugly start.  Keene State was predictably non-competitive against No. 1 Tufts in a 60-38 loss.  The Jumbos shot poorly in the 1st half, but Keene's offense was even worse.  This was easily forseeable after a very shaky game against Westfield State earlier in the week, combined with Tufts being ranked No. 1.  Westfield State flattened RIC 103-68 (losing by 35 to Westfield is a really bad look) and Stockton beat Western 77-45.  Even the wins on Friday weren't all that impressive.  UMass-Dartmouth knocked off middling Salve Regina 71-62 and Eastern Connecticut scraped by against New England College 63-59.

To sum up the season so far, teams in the Little East have wins over Westfield State 78-74, Salem State 60-53 in overtime, Rivier 71-61, Sage 69-67, WPI 56-47, Fisher 84-40, Salve Regina 71-62 and New England College 63-59.  Several close games there and no world-beating opponents.

Meanwhile, the losses have come against University of New England 62-46, Suffolk 73-70, Westfield State 103-68, Tufts 60-38 and Stockton 77-45.  While losing to teams such as Tufts, Stockton and University of New England is not embarrassing, those games were not really competitive.  Throw in a bad home loss to Suffolk by UMB and Westfield beating RIC by 35, the start to the season for the LEC has been forgettable.

7express...my only guess as to the very odd scheduling is that they agreed to the tournaments a while ago and did not know who the opponents would be at the tournaments.  Therefore, the regularly scheduled games have been on there for a while and the tournament games weren't known until relatively recently.  Nonetheless, I don't particularly like it.  What's the point of playing the same team back-to-back?  It's not baseball.  Particularly the potential for playing Worcester State twice in a row...the Lancers are mediocre at best.

[7express]

RIC, Keene & Eastern get squash wins vs. their overmatched opponents.  Western gets clobbered for the 2nd straight day in New Jersey, horrible weekend for the Colonials.  USM loses a tough one to Sage by 2, don't think they are going to be anything this year.  Boston ended up beating St. Catherine's by 10, but since St. Catherine's plays out in Minnesota, who the hell knows how good of a team they are??  Dartmouth got a 12 point win over a so-so Coast Guard team.  13-7 for the conference; 15-4 for me.

2 Sunday games:

Southern Vermont (+15) vs. USM (@ Plattsburgh).  I GUARANTEE a team with "Southern" in their name is going to win  .  The VT version has been blown out by 32 (RPI) and 42 (Plattsburgh).  USM has the same 0-2 record but both games have been close, and this USM team will probably be the best team SVC has played this year.  USM 69-41
Boston (+8.5) @ NYU.  NYU coming in flying high playing 2 NCAA tourney teams from last year (Stevens & Baruch) and winning both games by an average of 22 points.  Tough to expect Boston to win that, and frankly I don't think they'll come close to winning it.  NYU 82-61

[AllStar]

Nothing much noteworthy on Saturday.  None of the wins were surprising or overly impressive.  RIC struggled for a half, but managed to pull away from lousy Wentworth 62-52.  The Anchorwomen shot just 29%, but won anyway.  UMass-Dartmouth trailed by 1 after three quarters, but outscored Coast Guard 22-9 in the fourth to win 76-64.  The Bears were 2-0, but their wins were by 4 over Salve Regina and 10 over Rivier.  Keene State salvaged something in Saratoga Springs, beating Endicott 72-60.  Keene actually shot free throws well in the contest, helping them to keep the struggling Gulls (0-3) at bay.  Eastern Connecticut ran over a bad Gordon team, 79-51.  The Fighting Scots are 1-2 this year, with a narrow win over Mount Ida and an embarrassing loss to Fisher.  Gordon was just 6-19, 2-6 in the CCC last year and 3-22, 1-17 in the CCC two years ago.  UMass-Boston rebounded from their home loss to Suffolk to beat St. Catherine (MN) 65-55 in Manhattan, NY.  The Wildcats are located in St. Paul, Minnesota and appear to be middling at best.

Gettysburg shot a sizzling 57%, including 12-of-16 from three in a 91-67 win over Western Connecticut at Galloway, NJ.  The Colonials had a very rough weekend at Stockton.  The much more confounding loss was Southern Maine falling to Sage 59-57 at Plattsburgh, NY.  The Huskies had a 17-point lead with 1:51 left before halftime, but fell apart thereafter.  Sage is certainly not a bad team, but they play in a terrible conference.  The good news for USM is they get a Southern Vermont team who has lost their first two games by a combined 74 points tomorrow.

Overall, the women's side is lacking any real positive wins in the first week, with a lot of wins coming against overmatched foes.

Sunday:
Southern Vermont vs Southern Maine (at Plattsburgh, NY), 1:00 pm
UMass-Boston at New York University, 5:00 pm

Tuesday:
Endicott at Keene State, 5:00 pm
Southern Maine at Bates, 5:30 pm
Bridgewater State at Rhode Island College, 5:30 pm
Plymouth State at Castleton, 5:30 pm
Roger Williams at UMass-Dartmouth, 6:00 pm
UMass-Boston at Fitchburg State, 8:00 pm
Connecticut College at Western Connecticut, 8:00 pm

[7express]

Just as expected and predicted here USM wins and Boston loses Sunday.  Brings the conference to 14-8 and me to 17-4.  Onto Tuesday:

Endicott (+11) @ Keene.  They just played on a neutral court 3 days earlier with Keene winning by 12.  You'd have to think they'd have to win by at least 12 at home, wouldn't you??  Keene 74-61
USM (-2.5) @ Bates.  Really don't know which way to go here.  USM is probably better, but they are on the road.  Bates is 1-1 losing to Norwich by 14 (not good) and beating Central Maine Community College by only 6 (really not good).  Last time the Huskies were at Bates they got outscored 15 or 16-1 to 1 the final 7 minutes or so and ended up losing by 1 after leading most of the 2nd half by double digits.  USM 67-59
Bridgewater (pick em) @ RIC.  RIC rebounded nicely from the drubbing at the hands of Westfield on Friday night.  Bears are 1-1 beating Hamilton by 2 and losing @ Williams by 11, not terrible.  Bears won by 1 @ RIC in 2014 the last time they played (the game last year between the 2 got cancelled even though the men's game got played.  I'm still trying to find out a reason for that).  Bridgewater 63-62
Plymouth (+19) @ Castleton.  Step up in competition for the Panthers from Rivier to Castleton as Castleton has won 21+ games each of the last 5 season, and clobbered them by 19 in Plymouth last season.  Castleton 73-48
Roger Williams (+10) @ Dartmouth.  Hawks are 0-1 losing by 15 in their opener to Brandeis and have been off since last Tuesday.  Dartmouth 78-63
Boston (-38) @ Fitchburg.  I was wondering why Boston was such a gigantic favorite than I saw Fitchburg has lost 31 of their last 32 games dating back to 2014: The final 4 games of the 2014 season, all 25 games last year, and 2 of the first 3 this season.  Of course Boston knows all about ending big streaks as they were the last LEC team to lose a game to Plymouth back in January of 2014.  Boston 86-43
Conn College (-9.5) @ Western.  This will (hopefully) be the first of at least 4 matchups between Connecticut High school conference rivals Emma Belcourt (Western) and Sami Ashton (Conn College).  I've already talked about Belcourt on this board back in March, so let me give a little love to Sami: Conn College got an absolute steal with her as that was a d-1 caliber athlete and one of the better scorers I've seen.  May not be this year or even next year but come 2019/2020 if she's still in school there and doesn't transfer out that's going to be a dangerous team that Tufts/Williams/Amherst better watch out for.  Camels won by 22 in New London last season.  Think it's a lot closer this time around, but unfortunately it looks like to me, the Camels have a better team.  Conn College 78-67

[7express]

Went to my first Western game this evening in about 2 or 3 years (I've actually been to more Keene State games since the start of last season then Western games believe it or not) and suffice to say the same things that plagued them when I was in school there are still plaguing them which is mainly their lack of offensive production.  The defense wasn't terrible, as they lead for the entire first half and managed to score just enough in the first half to lead by 1, but when you have a team with the offensive threats that the Camels have, especially with Ashton (who iced the game on a coast to coast layup with less than 40 seconds to play) you just have to score more consistently.  They had 38 in the first half (20 first, 18 second) but that dropped to 7 in the 3rd quarter where the game was basically lost, and than finally 15 in the 4th.  Also the sense of urgency really has to improve: after getting a shot blocked out of bounds with 19 seconds to play in a 70-65 final, they didn't get enough shot off until there was about 2 seconds left, at which point the Camels grabbed the rebound and dribbled out about the last 0.8 seconds.  Have to get something there right away you are down 2 possessions can't be dribbling around the top of the key for 16 seconds waiting for a 3 opportunity.